Rotorcrafts such as helicopters include rotor blades, for example, main rotor blades and tail rotor blades. A conventional rotorcraft rotor blade derives a vast majority of its strength and stiffness from an internal torque tube, often referred to as a spar or D-spar. The remaining volume within a rotor blade is occupied, in part, by a core made of a material such as honeycomb core. An upper skin portion and a lower skin portion are adhesively bonded to the spar and core. In such a conventional rotor blade, skins are members whose curvature creates aerodynamic loads as the outer contour interacts with fluid. Such skins are thin and serve as aerodynamic fairings that provide a proportionally small amount of the load carrying capability of the rotor blade.